Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-11-10
WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
SUFFRAGE A RIGHT.

SOFfHAGE HIGHt.
Is Woman Suffrage N Right or a rrivi.
lege?-Prof w. ii. Carruths Reply ta
Senator Ingalls,.
Sojourner Truth once had made an
abolition argument, when some "but-
ternut" present exclaimed: "Why, |
old woman, do you think we care for
what you sayP We don't mind your
talk any more than aheabite." b" "Well,
SIR" said Sojourner Truth, "then
propose to keep you scratching
The politicians profess not to heed the
opinions of unpolitical men, but we
propose at least to keep them scratch
ing" Every man of us who pays
taxes and has an idea of his own should
speak it out, and perhaps we can get
our will done sometime. If we are to
hold our tongues, how is any one to
know what the voice of the people is?
1t would end in being-The voice of
the politician is the voice of God; and
the Democratic principle would be dis
proved by a reductio Gd Gbsurd@m.
L
time than this, the anniversary
of the promulgation of the Decla-
ration of Independence, for me
to make protest which l have long
had waiting, against certain per-
nicious doctrine which call political
| infdelty.
A short time ago distinguished cit
tzen of the State, and the acting Vice
President of our Union (Senator
Ingalls,, made public profession of
this heresy in speech at Abilene,
which may be taken as the perfect
flower and consummate absurdity of
the arguments against the principle of
democratic government And if l
wanted to defeat that distinguished
gentleman in future candidacy, l
would conline myself to publishing
that speech and getting it clearly be-
fore his constituency. But [ have no
war to make upon Senator Ingalls,,
only upon the doctrine which he
breaches; and the more dazzling his
armor and the more lofty his position,
the more is it the duty of every citizen,
however lowly, to defend the position
which he attacks, and to let it be
clearly known that Kansas is not otready
to accept an aristocracy.
The doctrine, of which we hear more
and more as the practice of reading the
Declaration of Independence falls into
decay-and may heaven check that de-
cadence!-is this: That suffrage is
simply privilege, a concession, not a
right. No one, they say, has a right
to vote; government simply grants the
privilege to those whom it so chooses
to honor.
Now, my friends, this argument, if
any argument be necessary in coun-
try like ours, turns on the question:
What is government, and what is it
for? Senator Ingalls, answers the ques-
tion from an aristocratic standpoint,
nay, more, from an autocratic stand
point. He assumes that government
is something outside of and separate
from the governed. which is estab-
lished by the grace of God-known
in the Senator's vocabulary as force
and which has the right and function
of saying what men shall live for and
how they shall do it; what is the chief
end of man and which end he shall
stand on. That representative of the
most democratic State in all this grea
, republic of democracies should gravely
announce to the people that govern
ment depends on force, is significant
, fact, and, if that announcement is re
, ceived without loud and forcible pro
test-a lamentab3e fact. But, unfortun
ately for the doctrine proclaimed, tht
, charter of this Government reads diff
, ferently, and the whole history of civ
ilization shows that it is exactly away
from this kind of government that W.
= have been growing.
: Up to the present century, suffrag
was the right only of those classe
which had seized it, But it is tn
glory of our age to have recognized tn
true and right principle of govern
ment, and to have made within tn
last fifty years the first extensions o
: the right to those who could not hav
e taken it by force of arms. To be sure
: there are still restrictions on the sui
frage; but their nature proves that it i
q regarded as right. They have t
e show cause for their existence, Grim
'e inals are excluded from the suffrage
Ie because their influence is cast agains
the very purposes for which gov
/, ernments are established. Grim
is unorganized treason. Idiots ar
/ excluded because they can not kno'
st whether they are doing what is fo
2 their own good. The young are e,
cluded for the same reason-the al
III bitrary age of twenty-one being Sc
in as limit of their incapacity, becaus
" of the insurmountable difficulty of d,
D." termining the age of discretion i
ne every individual. Finally, women ar
excluded, because-well, nobody ha
IN yet succeeded in finding a valid re'
~ son for that, and Kansas. always for
r.. most, has begun the work of remo'
4 ing Instructions; and she doesn't G
20 backward.